Obama back to wearing an American flag pin

posted at 3:34 pm on April 15, 2008 by Allahpundit

I lost track of this very stupid story after the initial dust-up last October. Evidently a disabled vet handed it to him at this morning’s speech, thereby magically ridding it of the Iraq cooties that had rendered it unfit to grace the chest of the Messiah until today. Read this prescient column from the AJC a few weeks ago predicting that the pin would soon reemerge in the wake of Wright’s “chickens coming home to roost” clip entering near-permanent rotation on cable news. Conservatives naturally were blamed for making an issue of this last fall but in fact Obama’s the one who politicized it by investing the pin with such grandiose meaning that he simply had to stop wearing it in good conscience. No other prominent Democratic critic of the war that I can think of has felt the need to divest him- or herself of the sort of symbolism that those small town yokels whom Obama has such affection for seem to appreciate so much. If anything, the anti-war crowd has always been eager to reclaim the symbolism of the flag to make the point that no one has a monopoly on patriotism. Ah well; it’s all just a byproduct of false consciousness anyway.

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Team Obama’s “defense” appears to be that a disabled vet gave it to him, and it therefore gave it “meaning”. So effing what? Was he not aware prior to today that a lot of Americans, including even disabled vets, have a strong affinity for the flag and for this country?

WATERLOO, Iowa — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he doesn’t wear an American flag lapel pin because it has become a substitute for “true patriotism” since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Asked about it Wednesday in an interview with KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Illinois senator said he stopped wearing the pin shortly after the attacks and instead hoped to show his patriotism by explaining his ideas to citizens.

“The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin,” Obama said. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security.

“I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest,” he said in the interview. “Instead, I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism.”

I’m guessing there’s now a “six-gun” gun rack in the back of the tour bus, right above the willie Nelson bumper sticker.

When he gets queried about it from the press, he’ll no doubt explain where he got it. Moron. He will only confirm that “it meant a lot to the Vet”, and by extension that “other than that, it doesn’t mean anything to me”.

Wake me when Obama and all the rest of his family instinctively put their hands to their hearts whenever the Star Spangled Banner is played or the Pledge of Allegiance is recited; and when each of them can, without hesitation or prompting, recite the full Pledge of Allegiance (to the United States of America, that is) with enthusiasm.

Until then, I remain skeptical that Barak even knows what the pin is…he probably thinks it is a button.

Team Obama’s “defense” appears to be that a disabled vet gave it to him, and it therefore gave it “meaning”. So effing what? Was he not aware prior to today that a lot of Americans, including even disabled vets, have a strong affinity for the flag and for this country?

BuzzCrutcher on April 15, 2008 at 3:48 PM

The vet gave it to him after being asked by Obama’s people beforehand, “Would you please present this flag pin to the Senator when there are people around and say something meaningful while you’re at it? Pretty please?

The question is, will he keep it on or take it off after this? If he keeps it on, doesn’t that make him a substitute patriot by his definition? And if he takes it off, isn’t he offending the veteran who gave him the flag?

The question is, will he keep it on or take it off after this? If he keeps it on, doesn’t that make him a substitute patriot by his definition? And if he takes it off, isn’t he offending the veteran who gave him the flag?